Last year I decided to run a couple of games of "What A Tanker" at Historicon with "Hollywood Goes To Historicon" or some such being the theme. I chose to run the tank battle in North Africa from the movie "Patton" and the part of that dog of a movie "Battle of the Bulge" where Telly Savalas and his troop of Chaffee light tanks find themselves fighting with Tigers.
For the Bulge, I went with a simple flat cloth. But there were some ridges in the battle in "Patton" which were kind of important and distinctive. I needed hills, but the cost of buying pre-made terrain was prohibitive.
And then I saw an article somewhere on using foam rubber, like the type used in seat cushions...
A trip to Wally World found me with four pieces of the right size and thickness (about an inch thick) to make into hills.
Some few cuts later with a pair of scissors and I had the basic pieces I needed. A trip to Home Depot for a sample pot of a terra cotta yellowish-brown yielded the colour I wanted.
The foam soaked up a large amount of paint and when I did my corner pieces, I had to buy a second pot. But the effect was wonderful. I did a tan dry brush on the slopes just to break up the outline a bit.
Simple and fairly cheap. The process has potential for other colours, like green and for adding flock or sand if I really wanted to jazz it up. I am rather pleased with the simple effect, though.
As a friend of mine likes to say "Works for me..."
